The Simpsons: Tapped Out from Electronic Arts continues its run as my favorite iPad time waster despite several episodes where I thought my Springfield had been destroyed and weeks’ worth of hoarded candy simply gone after the Halloween update. Even with its shortcomings, this is still the game that sees the most action on my iPad thanks to constant updates, irreverent humor and continued Simpsons TV episode tie-ins. The latest update blankets the town in snow and starts the countdown to the holiday season with another level, more quests, more stuff to collect and more characters and buildings to unlock. Expect the number of players to blow past the 2.8 million daily users EA reports log on to its iTunes chart-topping game.

Version 4.0 of the popular iOS application shows that the EA development team is following the community forums and has a sense of humor about complaints from users. I — like many other players — collected as much Halloween candy as possible during the last major update, assuming that it could eventually be turned in for something. After all, it was costly to collect, there was a limited time, so it had to be good for something, right? Nah, it just disappeared. At the start of this update, Homer and Lisa riff on the topic of where all the candy went — in the vein of Comic Book guy’s “worst episode ever” pronouncement. The update also brings collecting (in the form of Santa coins), but this time it’s made clear from the start that the coins can be used to buy things.

As with every update, Springfield continues to flesh out — while running the risk that something might go wrong and leave you locked out for a few hours, days or possibly for good*. I’m only a day or so into this level (thanks to another painful update experience), but I’ve added Dr. Hibbert and his medical practice, the Flanders clan are booting around town on a snowmobile, Homer and Lisa are pretending to ski and one of my kids just bought a Mapple Store with Santa coins. Other free unlockable characters and buildings reportedly include Barney, Springfield General Hospital , Barney’s Bowlerama, Try-N-Save and a collection of Funzo toys. Of course, there’s plenty of new premium stuff (like Sideshow Mel, Dr. Nick and Krustylu Studios) because the whole point of this exercise — at least from EA’s perspective — is to get you to fork over some real cash to buy donuts to buy the goodies.

The Mayan God is still wandering around Springfield — does this mean that he might do something come December 21? I suppose we’ll find out.

You have until January 3 to collect Santa coins and enjoy the change of scenery in Springfield. Unless you have an Android device, in which case there are plenty of forums where you can sound off (or at least plead with EA).

*Up until the Thanksgiving update, I’d had no real technical issues with Tapped Out, although EA forums are full of complaints about users who are unable to launch their game after an update. This has now happened to me twice. Reinstalling and running from another iOS device (using the same Origin account) made no difference, but in both cases, after giving up for a few days and coming back, the game loaded and ran perfectly, although it rather cheekily suggested I invest a donut to catch up on the time I’d missed. If EA could finally nail this ongoing problem, they’d have pretty close to a perfect, casual iPad game.

Springfield Cemetery spawns zombies in the latest upgrade to EA’s The Simpsons: Tapped Out for iOS. Screen capture by Brad Moon.

In the spring, I wrote a review of The Simpsons: Tapped Out, an iOS game released by Electronic Arts. The game — a freemium casual Sim City-inspired grinder for fans of The Simpsons — was great up until the point where it ceased being so. It seemed as though EA had lost interest. The game topped out at level 18 with no further quests or objects to unlock, experience earned was then throwaway and the only way to gain additional items was to pay for donuts and buy them. The game was even yanked from the App Store after ongoing server performance issues. Then one day I launched the game on my iPad, it crapped out and reset back to square one. Months of time wasting was apparently wasted. I could have started troubleshooting and attempting restoration, but why bother? There was nothing new. However, I’m happy to say that, after months of apparent neglect, The Simpsons: Tapped Out is back and in a big way. New levels, new quests, new items, new characters and an entirely new spin on the game with a month of Halloween-themed action featuring zombies and a TV show tie-in.

I reinstalled The Simpsons: Tapped Out for the heck of it a few months ago. To my surprise, it restored to the the Springfield I’d spent all that time grinding to build, despite the fact that I hadn’t bothered to register with an account, but was playing anonymously. That was a good start. Shortly after, there were signs of life in the franchise. A new level was added, along with a new character to unlock. It only took an hour or so of gameplay to complete this, but then a second new level and character. Martin Prince and Nelson Muntz helped freshen the experience a bit after months of sameness. And then the big one: version 3.0 was released. Continue Reading “The Simpsons: Tapped Out Comes Back to Life With an Undead Upgrade” »

Yes, my Springfield has some serious design flaws, but I've been too busy keeping up with the tapping to get around to niceties like separating bars from schools.

I pride myself on having avoided many years worth of time-sucking, premium content–peddling, screen-tapping social games like FarmVille, CityVille and Mafia Wars. However, I do have a weakness for The Simpsons and the early SimCity games were among my favorites. Electronic Arts combined the TV Show, city building, optional social aspects and a whole lot of repetitive tasks in The Simpsons: Tapped Out, the iOS game that finally dragged me into the world of grinding, casual freemium gaming.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out starts off with an animated parody of the whole genre. Homer, at work and engrossed with a freemium game on his myPad, bemoaning all the tapping, and facing a large credit card bill for buying premium content, fails to notice the nuclear power plant’s core temperature reaching critical. The plant explodes, wipes Springfield of the face of the map and leaves the player to rebuild it, one building at a time. Don’t worry, the characters all survived the blast, although getting access to them is going to cost you — one way or another. Continue Reading “D’Oh! The Simpsons: Tapped Out Is an Addictive Time Waster” »